www.maderatribune.comServing the Heart of California since 1892http://www.maderatribune.com/node/4869/atom.xml2015-03-31T18:47:23+00:00http://www.maderatribune.com/columns/preview-dogtv-and-cattv2013-04-12T03:58:02+00:002013-04-13T03:58:16+00:00A preview of DogTV and CatTVwebmaster

Now they have television for dogs. The programming is designed to keep dogs amused when they are left home alone. DirecTV “will begin offering DogTV for $5.99 a month in the third quarter, according to Bloomberg,” says Shelly Palmer in his daily blog on technology.

DogTV content is aimed at canines and includes “scenes with and without other animals, animation sequences and a variety of moving objects,” Palmer quotes the Web site Mashable as saying.

I’m not sure our dog would be interested in any of that programming. She’s hardly interested in television at all. Sometimes I will invite her to sit on the couch with me while I’m watching television, and she might spend five minutes doing that. But that seems to be her limit.

Soon she’s off to find Mr. Pig, the squeaky toy that is her favorite thing in the whole world next to chicken jerky treats. I throw Mr. Pig, and she goes and gets himI throw Mr. Pig again. She goes and gets him again. For her, that’s the height of a day’s excitement.

I think she would rather have another Mr. Pig instead of a subscription to DogTV. That way, she could play twice as much fetch. Which would wear me out twice as fast.

Mashable reports that a CatTV is in the works, and I wish the CatTV company luck. I don't know about your cat, but ours has even less interest in television than the dog has.

The cat is something of an intellectual, and invests a lot of time in trying to manipulate me into giving her more kibble, or even the occasional can of wet food.

When I am sitting on the couch watching television, the cat will jump up there with me. Then, she crawls on my chest. Sh.e purrs and pokes me. It doesn’t matter what’s on television. The only way I can get rid of her is to put her outside with some food. I tried to teach the cat how to play fetch. But I might as well have tried teaching her how to write checks and pay the bills. She won’t even pick up a pen. Why should she do that? I do it for her. She’s got it made.